Best Served Cold
War may be hell, but for Monza Murcatto, a solider of considerable fortune; it's a damn good way of making money too. Her victories have made her popular - a shade too popular for her employer's taste. Betrayed and left for dead, Murcatto's reward is a broken body and a burning hunger for vengeance. Whatever the cost, seven men must die. Duke Orso imagines that he can become king by ending the civil wars that have devastated Styria, but he errs by trying to kill his overly popular general, mercenary Monza Murcatto. Recovering from her massive injuries and mourning her murdered brother, Monza vows vengeance on Orso and half a dozen of his accomplices. "Joe Abercrombie takes the grand tradition of high fantasy literature and drags it down into the gutter, in the best possible way." --- Time "Abercrombie is both fiendishly inventive and solidly convincing, especially when sprinkling his appallingly vivid combat scenes with humor so dark that it's almost ultraviolet." --- Publishers Weekly "A satisfyingly brutal fantasy quest. BEST SERVED COLD? Modern fantasy doesn't get much hotter than this." --- Dave Bradley, SFX "Abercrombie has written the finest epic fantasy trilogy in
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Also by Joe Abercrombie
What you might want to know about Best Served Cold
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Mercenary general Monza Murcatto is thrown off a balcony by her employer and survives with one task. Seven men were in the room. She means to kill all of them. Standalone in Abercrombie's First Law world.
Best Served Cold is a standalone follow-up to Joe Abercrombie's First Law trilogy, set a few years after the events of Last Argument of Kings. Reading the First Law trilogy first is strongly recommended for full context.
Best Served Cold is adult grimdark fantasy with extensive graphic violence, sexual content, and morally bleak themes. It is not appropriate for younger readers and is among the darker entries in modern fantasy.
Best Served Cold was written by Joe Abercrombie, published in 2009 by Gollancz.
Best Served Cold is 632 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Best Served Cold takes most readers 9 to 14 hours to finish.
Best Served Cold is a standalone novel by Joe Abercrombie, not part of a series.
Best Served Cold is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
